JOYBOY (Now on Webnovel and Meganovel)

Chapter 81: Off The Deep End

Chapter 81: Off The Deep End

City Memorial Cemetery, Baltiney, New York...

      Uneasy footsteps moved through the graves as a drunken Ken Ryker moved about a rather vast cemetery until he came to the spot where his wife and sons had been buried. The shards of memory cut like glass when they revealed themselves to him despite his drunken state. He had not been since the memorial some years prior and as a result, barely knew how to get there aside from the memories returning. He had not known why he'd been compelled to come to this place, he supposed with all the fuss and the upcoming wedding he didn't sign up for it was inevitable. Ken finally reached the gravestones and gripped the bottle of bourbon he'd been carrying as he managed to make it to his late wife's grave.

He noted the flowers that had lined Kevin and Carter's graves, he sighed as he sat down beside them unsure what he'd even been doing there but feeling that he needed to be there despite how everything turned out. He recalled the day Kevin was born, his first-born son and only child at the time. He'd been born during a rainstorm and a bit premature. Sera had been upset about the possibility of losing him but Ryker had been optimistic.

Kevin was small but he'd been a fighter and looked a good deal like Ryker himself when he'd been born. He never imagined the boy would be as impressive as he'd been at the age of ten years old. He'd been highly intelligent and kind, something Ryker himself had not been when he'd been his age. Anything good about the boys had come from their mother which included their strength of character.

Carter had been Ryker's baby, he'd come out the most like Sera and as a result, had his Dad's heart from the very beginning. He'd been only eight when his young life ended due to the plane crash along with his elder brother and mother. It had been Carter's grave that Ken had been leaning beside as he turned out his bottle and sifted through the braven shards of memory that plagued him since awakening in his parents' house.

He had not wanted any other children since the boys had died and was less inclined to want any with a woman who had not been Sera. Ryker found himself spiraling in the wake of the loss despite his best efforts to pretend otherwise but the empty house and long lonely nights had taken their toll on him far worse than anyone had ever known.

He crawled over toward his wife's grave and the tears just poured out of him. He couldn't even look at her headstone before his eyes became misty and his agony palpable. He could see Sera as she was when he first met her, when they'd been married, and when she'd been lying in the hospital lifeless following the events of the plane crash. Those who had heard from her during the events leading up to the plunge said that she'd been almost sure that he'd be there to find them when it was all said and done, and he had come for her and the boys but he'd been too late to save them.

"I...I fucked up," said Ken gripping the bottle once more. "I fucked up bad this time Sera...and I...I don't know what to do or how to fix it..."

Ken took a drink from his bottle and sighed.

"Some golden boy I turned out to be," he muttered. "I couldn't even save you and the boys, and I still managed to fuck up the only good thing I had going for me with that girl I saved...fuck..."

Ken finished off the bottle and leaned back against his wife's grave.

"Maybe this is what I deserve, for not getting on that plane with you," he said bitterly. "You were always the saint, you shouldn't have to be anywhere near this hell..."

He closed his eyes as the booze took effect and he passed out amid the graves and the silence.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Kennison Estate, Latimer Ave, Baltiney, New York...

Dean had been concerned about Ken to the point of pacing the floor. He had wanted to call everyone and ask if they'd seen him but he didn't want them to upset him or drag him off to be committed. The close call with Mildred had been more than enough to scare him away from the idea that they could offer any real assistance in this matter. Valencia had been clueless as to where he'd been as well and the lad had begun to truly worry about the older man. He'd even called Spyder and asked if he'd seen him but still no one knew where Ken had gone. The idea that he'd possibly been faced down in a ditch terrified Dean more than he believed it should have given everything he'd known about Ken's accident from what Malcolm had told him.

Dean had nearly given up waiting and attempted to call Malcolm himself only to see the front door open and Ken step through looking a bit worse for wear but he'd been in one piece. He reeked of booze and his eyes were giddy from possibly helping himself to Spyder's leftover stash that he'd found in the car. The older man closed the front door and smirked at the concerned blond lad who had wanted so badly to slap him across the face for making him worry.

"You inconsiderate fucking bastard you could have called!" Dean shouted angrily as Ken continued to make his way inside the living room of his house.

"Didn't know you cared." the older man remarked as he slowly began to discard his attire tossing his jacket and shirt onto the sofa before kicking off his shoes.

Dean sighed as he turned his attention back to his favorite movie as if Ken had never even entered the front door. He had wanted so badly to ignore him but the older man had not been one to be denied. He stripped out of his suit slacks and socks before venturing after Dean who had gone back to his favorite movie on the big screen.

"Not this shit again." groaned Ken.

"Serves you right for leaving me without a word, asshole," remarked Dean as he curled up on the larger sofa.

Ken took note of the fact that Dean had been in his bathrobe. The drunken man smirked as he filed onto the sofa alongside him and pulled the pouting younger lad into his arms, as they both settled onto the sofa together and watched the movie playing across from them.